Music Licensing Reform on Tap

Update, July 12, 5:30pm: Marybeth Peters does it again. Arguing that a change would help new legit services compete with "piracy" (consistent with Grokster) and cut off the claims of double dipping by the licensors, Peters updated her plea for reform of the music licensing system. More updates as I get a chance to read the other testimony from today's session.

One of the thornier issues floating around in the music world is whether there's a way to rationalize the copyright regime associated with pre-recorded music.  There are two copyrights to every piece of recorded music (composition and sound recording) and numerous competing interests when it comes to the use of that recorded music in other settings.

The podcasting fad/phenomenon has brought attention to a fundamental flaw in traditional copyright law -- the breakdown of "distribution" and "public performance" as separate rights in the digital universe.

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Marybeth Peters, the Register of Copyrights, has testified to the House Judiciary Committee that she wants to do away with compulsories once the rights are collapsed in the law.  She, along with a cast of other familiar faces, will be testifying again today on music licensing reform before the Senate Judiciary Committee. 

Stay tuned... I won't have a chance to watch the live netcast, but I will be following up shortly.  If the cards play out right, we may see some real progress toward digital convergence and rational copyright laws.  Now if we could only look at rolling back the duration a little -- it's easy to change the Berne Convention, right?